Iceal Hambleton - The Bat 21 Rescue

The Bat 21 Rescue

On his 63rd mission, on April 2, 1972, Hambleton was a navigator aboard an EB-66C gathering signals intelligence, including identifying enemy anti-aircraft radar installations, to enable jamming. The aircraft was helping escort a cell of three B-52 bombers tasked with attacking entrance passes to the Ho Chi Minh trail. While just south of the DMZ and immediately north of Quang Tri at about 30,000 feet (9,100 m), the aircraft was destroyed by a Soviet-built SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile. Hambleton was the only one of the six-man crew able to eject. He parachuted into the middle of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive and landed in the midst of tens of thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers. His eventual rescue from behind enemy lines was the "largest, longest, and most complex search-and-rescue" operation during the entire Vietnam War.

Hambleton had received water survival training at Homestead AFB, Florida, and escape and evasion training and survival basics at the Pacific Air Command Jungle Survival School in the Philippines. During the rescue operation, five aircraft were shot down, 11 air men were killed in action, and 2 were captured. Nine additional aircraft and helicopters were badly damaged during the rescue attempts. U.S. Army General Creighton Abrams finally ordered that no further air rescue operations should be attempted, but ordered a ground rescue operation. Hambleton was a USAF ballistic missile expert with a Top Secret/SCI clearance and his capture by the North Vietnamese Army would have been of tremendous benefit to them and the Soviet Union. Hambleton said after the war that he felt sure if he were captured that he would never have been taken to Hanoi.

Hambleton was finally rescued after 11½ days by U.S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant, junior grade Thomas R. Norris and VNN commando Nguyen Van Kiet in a daring, covert, night-time infiltration 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) behind enemy lines. Norris was awarded the Medal of Honor and Nguyen the Navy Cross. Nguyen was the only South Vietnamese naval officer given that award during the war. Hambleton was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and a Purple Heart for his effort.